LOGINShare
Chapter 3: The Unwelcome Guest
Last Updated:
2025-11-29 01:15:47Kaelan
The penthouse was too quiet after she left.
Kaelan remained at his desk, the signed contract a stark, black-and-white victory on the polished wood. He had won. He had secured the necessary asset to project stability, to fortify his empire against the Thorne Group’s encroachment. It was a flawless strategic move.
So why did the silence feel so… loud?
He replayed the meeting in his mind. The defiance in her hazel eyes, the way her voice had sharpened when she called herself a “mannequin.” Most people he negotiated with were either sycophantic or terrified. Elara Vega had been neither. She had been hostile, a cornered artist with the spine of a warrior queen. It was an inconvenient variable he hadn’t fully accounted for.
His intercom buzzed, a welcome intrusion. “Mr. Sterling,” Marcus’s voice came through, “the team from Architech is here for the 11 a.m. briefing.”
“Send them in,” Kaelan said, his voice returning to its usual, controlled timbre.
He slid the contract into a drawer, locking it away. The deal was done. The variable would be managed.
---
Elara
The drive back to Brooklyn was a blur of steel and noise. The weight of what she had done pressed down on her, making it hard to breathe. Twenty-four hours ago, her biggest concern had been whether the cadmium red for her new series would arrive on time. Now, she had sold a year of her life to a man who saw her as a line item on a budget.
Her studio, once her sanctuary, now felt like a relic of a past life. The half-finished seascape on the easel seemed to mock her. What was the point of painting storms when you were living one?
She needed to get out. She needed her best friend.
An hour later, she was nestled in a worn velvet booth at “The Grind,” her favorite coffee shop, the air rich with the scent of roasted beans and sugar. Lena was already there, two massive ceramic mugs of steaming latte between them.
“Okay, spill,” Lena said, her sharp eyes missing nothing. “You have that ‘my world just ended’ look, which is usually reserved for when you accidentally use Prussian Blue when you meant Phthalo.”
Elara wrapped her hands around the warm mug, drawing a shaky breath. “It’s worse than a color mix-up, Lena. So much worse.” The whole story tumbled out in a hushed, frantic torrent—her uncle’s ultimatum, the forty-two million dollar debt, the sterile office, the icy billionaire, and the contract she had signed.
Lena listened, her expression shifting from concern to outright horror. “He did what?” she finally hissed, leaning forward. “Your uncle sold you to Kaelan Sterling to cover his own incompetent—or, let’s be real, probably criminal—ass? And you signed?”
“What choice did I have?” Elara whispered, tears of anger and shame pricking her eyes. “Let my father’s company die? Let him lose everything while he’s sick?”
“There’s always another choice, El. We could go to the press! I could write a scathing expose—‘Billionaire Buys a Bride’!”
“And in the time it takes for that to run, Vega Designs would be a smoking crater,” Elara said, the reality of it cold and absolute. “This was the only way. It’s just one year.”
“One year in a gilded cage is still a prison sentence,” Lena countered, but her voice had softened. She reached across the table and squeezed Elara’s hand. “What’s he like? Sterling? Is he as much of a robot as he seems?”
A vivid image of Kaelan’s piercing, assessing gaze flashed in Elara’s mind. “Worse. He’s… cold. Like a perfectly carved ice sculpture. He looked at me and saw a problem to be solved, not a person.”
“Well,” Lena said, a determined glint in her eye. “Then you’ll just have to be the most inconvenient, problematic problem he’s ever had to deal with. You might be his wife on paper, but you don’t have to make it easy for him.”
A small, weary smile touched Elara’s lips for the first time all day. “Easy” was not a word that would ever describe her interactions with Kaelan Sterling.
---
Kaelan
He stood in the center of the guest wing of his penthouse, a space that had been decorated by a team to be inoffensive and impersonal. It was all beige tones, sleek furniture, and art that was expensive but devoid of soul. Marcus stood beside him, tablet in hand.
“The last of Ms. Vega’s belongings from the preliminary background check have been cleared,” Marcus said. “The space is ready for her arrival tomorrow.”
Kaelan gave a curt nod. “Ensure the security system is updated with her biometrics. She will have access to this wing and the common areas. My office and private suite remain restricted.”
“Understood,” Marcus replied, making a note. He hesitated. “Sir, if I may… Alistair Vega’s financials are… messy. The story about the embezzlement by his partner checks out, but the speed of the company’s decline is… notable.”
Kaelan’s eyes narrowed. “Noted, Marcus. Keep looking. I don’t like loose ends.” His gaze swept over the sterile guest room. It was a cage, yes, but a five-star one. It was more than sufficient for the terms of their agreement.
He turned and walked back toward his side of the penthouse, the vast space feeling more divided than ever. He had acquired a wife. He had secured a business advantage. It was, by every metric that mattered to him, a success.
But as he poured himself a drink later that evening, standing once more before the wall of glass, the city lights seemed to blur. He couldn't shake the image of Elara Vega’s defiant eyes, the way she had signed her name not with resignation, but with a promise of a fight.
“Don’t mistake my signature for surrender.”
The variable, he realized, was already proving disruptive. And for the first time in a long time, Kaelan Sterling felt a flicker of something unfamiliar—the unsettling thrill of the unpredictable.
Latest chapter
WHEN FORTUNE BECOMES A BOND Chapter 65: The Invitation
A crisp, heavy envelope arrived, bearing the elegant letterhead of the Museum of Modern Art. It was addressed to both of them. Elara opened it, her brows furrowing as she read."They want to host a retrospective," she said, her voice a mix of awe and apprehension. "A dual exhibition. My 'Fortress' and 'Convergence' series, alongside a curated selection of pieces from the Sterling family collection. They're calling it 'Legacy & Vision'."Kaelan came to read over her shoulder. It was a monumental honor, a cementing of Elara's status in the art world. But the title was a landmine. Legacy. The word was now inextricably linked to the Thornes, to the very conflict they were trying to move past."It's your decision," Kaelan said softly. "Entirely. If you think it's too soon, or if the theme is too fraught, we decline. No questions asked."Elara stared at the invitation. A public exhibition, intertwining her journey of independence and
WHEN FORTUNE BECOMES A BOND Chapter 64: The Calm After the Storm
The weeks following Julian Thorne’s arrest were a study in surreal normalcy. Headlines screamed, legal analysts dissected the fall of a dynasty, but within the walls of the penthouse, a fragile peace settled. The constant, humming threat was gone, leaving behind a silence that was both a relief and a void.Kaelan was determined to fill that void with something new. He cleared his schedule, delegating the corporate fallout to Marcus. His focus was singular: Elara.He didn’t smother her with questions or empty reassurances. Instead, he showed up. He attended every prenatal appointment, his large hand always finding hers. He read pregnancy books with the same intensity he once reserved for financial reports, his brow furrowed in concentration over diagrams of fetal development.One evening, he came home with a bag from a hardware store.“What’s that for?” Elara asked, looking up from the sofa where she was sketching.“Th
WHEN FORTUNE BECOMES A BOND Chapter 63: The Pattern
The man with the flowers pushed open the boutique door, a cheap delivery cap pulled low over his brow. The cheerful bell jingled, a stark contrast to the sudden, frozen silence that fell over the room. All pretense of a party vanished. Lena subtly shifted her stance, her hand moving toward the concealed weapon at her back.The deliveryman’s eyes, a cold, flat grey, scanned the room and locked onto Elara. A slow, triumphant smirk twisted his features. It was him. Julian Thorne.“A gift for the happy mother,” he said, his voice a silken threat. He held out the massive bouquet of white lilies, their funereal scent filling the air.Kaelan stepped forward, placing his body squarely between Julian and Elara. “It’s over, Julian.”Julian’s smirk didn’t falter. He ignored Kaelan, his gaze burning into Elara. “My father sends his regards from his six-by-eight-foot cell. He wanted you to have these. He always said lilies were for
WHEN FORTUNE BECOMES A BOND Chapter 62: The Pattern
Their new, defiantly public life was a carefully choreographed dance. They were photographed leaving a prenatal appointment, Kaelan’s hand a protective shield on her back. They attended a charity luncheon for an arts charity, Elara radiant in flowing blue silk. Each appearance was a broadcast to Julian: We are not afraid. We are here.And with each broadcast, Marcus’s digital net tightened. They weren't just waiting for an attack; they were analyzing the data their visibility created—increased dark web chatter, suspicious financial movements, patterns in the digital noise.It was Elara who saw it.She was in the studio, reviewing the data streams Marcus had given her access to, her artist’s mind seeking shapes in the chaos. She cross-referenced the dates of their public appearances with a log of attempted cyber-incursions on Sterling Holdings’ servers.“He’s not random,” she said, calling Kaelan and Marcus to her scr
WHEN FORTUNE BECOMES A BOND Chapter 61: The Message
The gala was a failure. A spectacular, humiliating failure.Back in the penthouse, the silence was deafening. Marcus stood before them, his face ashen. “He was a last-minute replacement for a sick waiter. His credentials were perfect, right down to the digital fingerprints. He was inside our perimeter for forty-seven minutes. We have him on camera, but he never made a threatening move. He just… observed.”“He was sending a message,” Elara said, her voice hollow. She stood by the window, still in her crimson gown, her arms wrapped around herself. “He wasn’t there to attack. He was there to demonstrate his power. To show us that all our planning, all our security, means nothing to him.”Kaelan was pacing, a caged animal. The fear he had tried to lock away was now a living thing in the room, feeding on his helplessness. “He looked at you. He singled you out.”“He did,” Elara confirmed, turning to face him. Her eyes were not sc
WHEN FORTUNE BECOMES A BOND Chapter 60: The Bait
The trap was Elara’s idea, a move of breathtaking audacity that left Kaelan equal parts terrified and awestruck.“The ‘Future of Innovation’ Gala is in three weeks,” she said, standing before a whiteboard she’d erected in the studio. It was covered in her fluid script—timelines, motives, potential moves. “It’s the most public stage we have. We use it.”“Absolutely not,” Kaelan said, his voice tight. “It’s a security nightmare. You, visibly pregnant, in a room with hundreds of people? It’s exactly what he wants.”“That’s why it’s perfect,” she countered, her gaze steady. “He’s been attacking from the shadows. We force him into the light. We make the event so secure, so high-profile, that any move he makes will be caught on camera and witnessed by the entire city. He wants a spectacle? We’ll give him one.”She turned to the board and wrote a single word in the center: BAIT.“I’m the bait,” she said, tapping the word. “He wants
You may also like
DEVIN
Castiel505.7K viewsOn My Professor's Bed
Xee write763.0K viewsBURNING PASSION: MY FORBIDDEN LOVER
Excel Arthur502.4K viewsSpoiled by Mr. Russell
Luminous Night1.0M viewsTHE BILLIONAIRE'S SECRET BRIDE
Bon Sash262 viewsUnforgettable Fragrance : His Burning Desire
Early Bird136 viewsFighting Strong (Fighting For Love 2)
Marysol James120 viewsMarried To Mr. Naccissist
Sarah miles30 views
